One Point at a Time

Every week of the school year I usually say around Friday, 'this has been a long week'.  But SERIOUSLY this one had me on a crazy emotional rollercoaster!  I haven't left the house since Friday PM (except to grocery shop in my PJS).   Lucky Darren was perfectly content handling all meal times.

We started strong with a Carlee Style room makeover.  As Carlee says 'this isn't my room anymore, it belongs to Piggy and Oreo'.  Carlee's guinea pigs (and their stuff) had taken OVER her room.  We thought it was time for a change.

(And this child wants a rabbit and puppy to add to our farm!?! #noway) 

before: desk, closet, and bed dump

We decided we needed to take out the large white desk and replace with a vanity.  Most homework is done at the downstairs desk and it was taking up so much space.  It took many hours to clean out closet, desk, and under bed area.   (It's so hard for Carlee to let stuff go, but she did it.)   

We put in a new vanity and a new little rug. 

Love the finished product.

Tween Living

The piggy cages are off to the side (and not in the center of the room).  Carlee is a very responsible pet owner and continues to clean, feed, and water the pigs daily.  The only time she didn't want to do it was when she was sick (and then I helped). 

I love the vanity her dad picked out and bought.  He even put some lights on it!  #girldad

Have you ever met an 11 year old with Ponds night cream?

Next - we had not one but TWO field trips from 8 to 5pm this week. 

I'm not complaining.  After 2020, to be able to go on trips again is awesome.

The problem is I'm 44 trying to keep up with 10-14 year olds in open space. 

I'm not joking when I say I put on my compression socks and orthopedic inserts for these trips.

I'm proud of myself because I did IT (and had a blast with NO injury)! 

Monday Morning Zoo Trip with my teaching Gal Pals

It wasn't long before I was separated from all humans.  My boy group took me through the entire lands of North America and Africa (no one could keep up)! 

I said 'guys this is like speed racing except zoo version'.  

I finally slowed them down at the Dippin Dots.

If you want to laugh- hang out with some boys.

They keep the jokes going. 

At the end of the week I joined Carlee on her field trip to the Science Museum.  All I could think is-  'did I use to teach elementary school!?!'    So much energy (but also so precious).   

It's good to be around kids who get excited by things that are not phones.

I'm so thankful to be able to go on a field trip with my Carlee Q.  I think it's the first trip I've ever attended with her class since Kindergarten. 

We were able to stay a bit later and enjoy some of the exhibits together.  I got a bit lost coming back looking for a Steak and Shake, and we nearly didn't make it to our second dance class.  ( I needed a SHAKE!)

This week also brought a late afternoon Board of Education Meeting where Carlee was recognized for being in the Newspaper Club.  She worked every Friday during lunch to help put together "Trends and Styles" with her buddies.  In this case, I'm really glad her friends talked her into taking part in this club.  It was a great thing! 

Go Car

This is one of her sample articles explaining "trends" of 2023.

We were mentally preparing for what we thought would be three tennis matches added into this crazed week. 

Sadly things took a turn for Connor after Monday.  

Connor came in from his match (3 hours away- one way) and begin to throw up.  We thought it was food poisoning but then the high temperature arrived with more sickness. 

This poor child rarely gets sick, and yet got sick right before the biggest match of his life- the one that would determine if our tennis team would go all the way to the state championship.

I love our tight knit team!!! 

The morning of the match,  

we knew Connor would beat himself up if he lost feeling weak (not to mention getting worse and spreading sickness before states).  He protested that Michael Jordan 'played with the flu' but we told him he had a ways to go at that NBA level.  We had to make the call- no school and no tennis. 

No kid has ever handled hard news with more grace and kindness.  He was so deeply disappointed but responded with goodness. He never once showed anger or frustration at his parents.  

Did I mention that in the midst of all the drama- a storm took out our power for over +24 hours.  No air condition, no lights, and no internet while Connor was SICK.  

(Yep, currently looking at generators.)

Bringing our A-Game at Gardner Webb University

That afternoon, Darren went to root on our team while I stayed back with the kids.  We ate outside on the grill where it was cooler and tried our best not to check our phones every minute with updates (while we charged them by our cars).   We prayed and prayed over our team.  We would get nervous and pray more.   

I took a picture because it was a lovely moment where we were making each other laugh despite all that was going on.

The Sechrist Fam can always laugh.

The sad news came in about 4 hours later that we had lost by ONE set.  To watch your baby boy struggle with such disappointment while he could not even be with his teammates/coach was killer.  I mean killer.  I'm still hurt for him.

I've known many of these kids since K-2 days

The thing is I adore our Men's Tennis Team.  I adore the coach and his family.  I adore the families who I have known for years.  

The boys were so supportive of Connor.  We know they fought, and it was a bitter disappointment.  To make matters worse, we were against a team who were crude and rude (and I mean RUDE).  I will leave it at that before this blog post turns into me telling telling off a bunch of people who were mean to our sweet boys.  (Not that I would harbor resentment.  🤣)

This season has been great.  Connor is mainly a singles player but I enjoyed watching him try on doubles with differ partners.   He once told me he was terrible at doubles but not true.  He played some great matches trying doubles. 

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Connor stepped up this year as an older member of the team.  He worked every Saturday and Sunday night at the grocery store, he went to school full time, he did an internship with me, and took kids home who needed it after games.   Out of 19 matches he lost 3 this year.

I'm so thankful Connor was a part of something so cool!  

In case you didn't know- we love this boy and could NOT be more proud of him.  

Some weeks bring pure craziness, but God sure has blessed me with this crew.  

I love My FAM!

Team Sechrist all the Way